The COVID-19 pandemic is dominating the news, but Sir Elton John is determined that those living with HIV/AIDS are not “forgotten”. He has announced that his AIDS Foundation will donate $1m (£815,000) in the “next few months.”
Speaking on the Miley Cyrus’ Bright Minded live stream on Instagram, Elton spoke about the “double whammy” being faced by HIV/AIDS sufferers during this pandemic. His fear is that while the world battles the global COVID-19 pandemic, “the people who are suffering from another global pandemic don’t get forgotten.”
The singer, who has seen his farewell tour come to a temporary halt, spoke about the aims of his foundation. Over the years it has tried to help the marginalised and poor, while ensuring it helps “the people who mustn’t get left behind.”
A post on the Elton John AIDS Foundation site has asked for applications that will help towards giving “solutions that have strong potential to address specific challenges that have arisen for people already living with or at severe risk of HIV/AIDS and who are now at heightened risk as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
You can see Sir Elton talking about this on his Instagram stream here
The solutions should “aim to demonstrably mitigate the threat of COVID-19 on maintaining current levels of access or increasing access to HIV-related prevention, testing, care and treatment adherence services.” The closing date for applications is 23:59 on Thursday April 23.
This follows a ‘Living Room Concert for America’ that resulted in a donation of $8m to help those affected by COVID-19.
More information here